


To Find An Echo

by TheWeirdOnes



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Action, Angsty Start, Gen, Humour, Hurt/Comfort
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-03-09
Updated: 2021-03-09
Packaged: 2021-03-16 06:33:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 985
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29945907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheWeirdOnes/pseuds/TheWeirdOnes
Summary: Fives can't find Echo... Rex helps-LowFlyingOctopus
Relationships: CT-21-0408 | CT-1409 | Echo & CT-27-5555 | ARC-5555 | Fives
Kudos: 11





	To Find An Echo

The dust settles in the dim twilight of the planets' nine moons, the gunfire slows and stills. The troopers who can stand rise and help other struggling brothers to their feet. Those few who are still living, at least. The dead number in their hundreds, scores of battered white and blue litter the ground, mixing with the dirty yellow of the droids. Helmets lie littered on the ground abandoned, their owners forgotten in the ill-won victory that so many died for.

Truth be told, Fives cannot even remember the name of the planet, and right now he couldn't care less. It's just another battlefield, just another civilisation destroyed, another planet burned to an uninhabitable crisp. This is war; Fives had seen too much to be deeply affected by the desolation wrought by conflict. But still... He searches the scorched battlefield, scouring his gaze across the black-marked ground in his desperation, hunting swiftly but with precision. What he's searching for can not so easily be lost, can not easily be fallen, nor dead. Not his brother, not Echo. They've seen so much together, they alone are the sole survivors of Domino Squad; it couldn't end now. Each battle is a step closer to the end of the war, Fives always believed he and Echo would see that together. He sweeps his eyes again and again across the dusty earth. The ships are just arriving, but Fives could not go; he would not leave before finding his brother. Be he dead or alive; Echo deserved that much. He hauls scrap metal away from battered and ragged droid artillery and tankers. He kicks over pile after pile of blasted droids. He finds no Echo. Fives slows, his breath ragged as he gasps for breath; desperate for control. _Control, soldiers must have control!_ But his thoughts are scattered, dancing away from his grasp like the twirls of dust in the quiet wind.

A weight lands roughly on his shoulder and Fives stiffens, upon turning he's met by Rex's helmet looking at him silently in a show of support. The captains' hand's still on Fives' shoulder. "Still no sign?" Rex's voice's hoarse from shouting orders. Fives shakes his head to the negative. "Nothing Sir." Rex's sigh's only just loud enough to be picked up by Fives' audio receivers as he pulls a small padd from one of his many belt attachments. Rex turns it on and presents it to Fives, _"Tell no-one,"_ he hisses quietly. _"Not even the Jedi."_ Fives looked at the... tracking device? Fives' mouth twitched as he looked at Rex, "You have one of these for all of us Sir?" Rex sighed at the question and went to check... something.

Fives smirked at the back of the retreating captain before turning to the screen. On the padd, Echo's name was flashing repeatedly in an indicatory manner on one corner of what looked like a map. Fives whistles under his helmet; is this a tracking device for Echo? Does the Captain have more? The feedback from his helmet transmits an almost raptor-like screeching and he winces. Following the flashing beacon he wanders along the edge of the battlefield until he reaches a smashed and basted Separatist tank. The indicator bleeps louder and Fives switches the padd off. His relief is palpable when he found Echo under the tank's battered flank, the antigrav floatage systems are compromised and his brother's legs are stuck beneath. Heaving a sigh of relief, Fives pulls out his comlink; "Fives to Rex, I've found him. I'll need a medical team, relaying you my coordinates now."

* * *

The bright lights of medbay seem to burn through Echo's eyelids as he wakes, he groans. "Again? I got shot _again_?"

With a grin Fives looks up from the padd he was fiddling with, "You're awake!"

"I thought that was clear. Did I get shot?"

"Not this time, brother. A little bit of variety. You were crushed by a walker instead."

"I think I can live without _that_ type of variety."

"Yeah," says Fives quietly, "So can I."

Echo had no words to respond. Struggling to sit up he glances around vaguely, only just registering the relative quiet they are in. All other beds in the room are unoccupied "Ooh, fancy. I have a private ward." Fives snorts in response, "Don't flatter yourself; you were the worst. Everyone else was let out hours ago." Echo winces, "That bad?" "Yeah." Desperately searching for a way to lighten the mood Echo asks, "What's on the padd?" Now Fives smirks freely. "The captain's tracking network."

A sputter from the other side of the room brings Echo and Fives' attention to Kix. The medic had been vaguely listening as he tidied his bacta patches. Now Fives has his full attention. "His _**what?** "_

Fives turns to Kix and announces smugly, "His tracking network; I borrowed it to find Echo and didn't - ahem! - I didn't give it back. I did a little exploring and managed to find everyone on ship with this thing, even the Jedi!"

The normally unshakeable Kix wheezes as he staggers from the room. "I... I can't even...". The door shuts behind him.

"Can't even what?" Echo pondered aloud. "Finish his sentence, apparently," jokes Fives and Echo rolls his eyes in response. Now Echo looks at the padd thoughtfully, "Do you think he has more?"

Fives snorts, "If the poor man's paranoid enough to have us all implanted with a tracking device (not that I blame him, with our Jedi) then he's definitely paranoid enough to have multiple padds with the network on."

"So," says Echo, slowly, "He probably won't miss this one, will he?" The troopers exchange a glance. Fives smirks again, "Probably not," he concedes.

(If the two ARC troopers play multiple pranks involving the padd, or scare the shinies into thinking they're force-sensitive by knowing where everyone is at any given moment; Rex doesn't make a comment on it).


End file.
